Friday, 3 March 2017

(previous episode)In the near future, Daisy takes part in an isolation experiment for five years only to find a very different world waiting for her when the doors open... (comedy/horror/sci-fi/distopian. All rights reserved) Part twelve of many.Resetting
Expectations...

You've
overridden the computer programme? Daisy asks, almost in awe of the
small, slightly battered robot. 'Yes, Fermat programmed me to be able
to access all systems on board. For when we are... were going to be
living in it. Is he dying?'

Outside,
Fermat is screaming and screaming until one of the baying pack moves
up gingerly approaching the lead dog and clamps its jaws around
Fermat's neck. There is a strangled gurgling noise as the jaws meet
in the middle and the screaming stops.

'I
should imagine so.' Douglas shudders slightly at the thought of what
might be happening outside. Having no windows and soundproofing on
the ICL now seems like a brilliant bit of design engineering. 'Can
you get the ICL moving?'

'Yes
but you are very low on water, power and food. The bio-digesters in
the system were only engineered for a five year tenure. We should go
to the garage before we travel anywhere.' T-Ladi runs a diagnostic on
the ICL's service history. 'The ICL could do with a deep clean, as
well. Many, many of its cleaning schedules were not complied with.
This is a breach of rules and you have triggered penalty payment
clause 4579, Daisy.'

'Wait
a minute T-Ladi, did you just say we needed to go to a
garage?'
Douglas asks. 'You do know that civilisation as we know it has
ended?'

'Yes.
I do not mean a petrol station. The garage is a purpose built ICL
utility workshop, very near here. Fermat sealed it after Downfall
Day. We can restock and clean the ICL. Make any repairs, I registered
there is some strange metal framework wedged under the chassis as you
threw me in through the door.'

'It
will be fine, I will simply reboot the system and it will start
running as though from the start of the experiment again, wiping all
memory of the last five years.'

'Wait!'
Daisy can't explain why it matters but losing the only thing she has
shared the last five years with, even if it is only a piece of
particularly belligerent computer code, seems the same as erasing
part of her herself . 'Do you have to wipe its memory?'

'Well,'
T-Ladi pauses for a moment and tries to analyse Daisy's facial
expression but fails. Human faces are still too tricky and Fermat
would not let her practise on him. 'I could reset the clock instead,
it might override the safe mode.'

'Well,
this sounds like a plan, we travel to the ICL workshop restock the
caravan with enough supplies for us all to make it to New Cumbria...'

'Why
would you travel to New Cumbria?' T-Ladi asks, surprise registering
in her synthetic voice.

'Because
they are building a new country there...' Before Douglas can
continue, T-Ladi starts to laugh.

'What's
so funny!' Douglas folds his arms and slumps into the nearby sofa.

'New
Cumbria is a piece of Government propaganda to try and make humans
feel more comfortable about the fall of civilisation. Something to
cling to. The hope was people would survive in small pockets across
the country and try to rebuild with the thought of a power base in
the mountains. There isn't anything there. Maybe a few sheep.'

'How
do you know all this?' Douglas asks annoyed, first it was Daisy and
now a robot is laughing at his plan.

'Fermat
hacked into the public broadcast software. He found the source files
and the outline of emergency planning. There was no plan.'

'No
New Cumbria?'

'No.
No new nothing. That is why Fermat went to great lengths to get the
ICL back. He had a plan.'

'Which
was?'

'Live
in the ICL.'

'And....'
Douglas asks a small flame of hope flickering in his mind at the
thought of a new plan.

'No,
that was it.'

'Just
live in the ICL? ... Forever?' Daisy can feel her blood
pressure rise, five years was bad enough but forever?

'No,
just until his death. We ought to get this vehicle to the garage, I
shall drive us there now.' With that, T-Ladi unplugs herself from the
docking port and makes her way through to the cockpit.

Daisy
sits next to Douglas on the moulded sofa and tries to make sense of
the last day. But there is no sense to it. Nothing makes sense any
more.

'I
was going to be rich and famous. Write a book, live on a island
paradise. Give regular interviews, maybe even a tour or two. And now,
now I have to spend the rest of my life in this... this... egg powder
and Sun-U-Like and there isn't even any cake....' Daisy stops making
any sense and starts softly and inconsolably crying.

Douglas
sighs, for a moment he wishes he was still on his bike, free, alone
and with a clear plan to get to New Cumbria and start a new life. But
it is much a dream as Daisy's imagined future is. The only thing that
is real is this, here and now, the ICL and the slim chance they might
survive for longer than most in the hi-tech cocoon of protection the capsule provides.

T-Ladi
slowly manoeuvres the ICL back onto the road and keys in the location
of the garage into the auto satnav. Then sets about overwriting the
digital clock, resetting it to five years without overwriting the
memory banks of the computer programme. It takes a few minutes but
she is successful and the digital projection above the sealed doors
in the living area suddenly flashes back into life, rolling back 1827
days in blur of light and starts counting down again.